In the 17^th century it’s estimated that 50 per cent of people died under the age of eight. There were no painkillers back then. One simply had to live with the toothache, backache, or headache. John Owen, the leading Puritan theologian of that era, had 11 children but only one survived teenage years. Can you imagine having to deal with such grief?

It was in this context of suffering that the Puritans generally, and John Owen particularly, developed a robust under­standing of holiness. How can Christians find the motivation for holiness when shackled with pain, whether physical or emotional? Let’s look at John Owen’s take on this.

One of the usual problems when talk­ing about Puritans is the inevitable preju­dice against them. They are often (wrongly) portrayed as a bunch of overly introspective killjoys, whose teaching was fundamentally opposed to Calvin’s. However, Puritans like John Owen, are finally beginning to be appreciated for who they are: towering theologians. Indeed, Dr John Webster, the Professor of Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen, and widely acclaimed interpreter of Karl Barth, believes Owen is the greatest theologian England has produced.

There are two reasons for this develop­ment in Puritan scholarship. First, the period of Protestant Orthodoxy (1565-1725), in which the Puritans are ensconced, is finally being freed from all sorts of highly prejudiced interpretations. And second, the Puritans are being stud­ied and understood in their proper histor­ical context.

Many past Christians and Christian movements have left important legacies for us today. The Cappadocian Fathers left us a rich understanding of the Trinity. Augustine bequeathed to us the biblical notion of grace. The Reformation gave us the five “alones”: Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone, and to God alone be the glory. Jonathan Edwards handed on a robust theol­ogy of revival. William Carey left us a burning zeal for world mission. What is the legacy of the Puritans?

One of the great jewels they left us was practical affectionate or experimental Christianity. The Puritans believed true Christianity involved the head, the heart, and the hands. A Christianity focused on the head leads to arrogance (1 Cor. 8:1). A Christianity excessively emphasising the heart leads to mysticism. And a Christianity giving pri­ority to the hands likely produces burnout.

John Owen himself was adamant that theology is not simply a task of the mind only. To simply know theology in one’s head only, he calls “Christian philoso­phy”, not theology. Doing theology only occurs when head knowledge warms the heart and strengthens the hands. Owen calls this true “evangelical” or “gospel” theology. Of course, he was aware that one doesn’t always bubble with positive emotions for God. However, he would say that something is wrong if affections and deeds do not regularly accompany head knowledge.

The emphasis on head, heart, and hands arises from Owen’s (and the Puritans’) understanding of the Christian life: Christianity is not an ideology but a rela­tionship. The Puritan phrase for this relationship was “communion with God” which naturally entailed enjoying God. Communion with God was not some mys­tical private experience but encompassed the entirety of life: work, family, rest, soli­tude, and play. Thus, for Owen, holiness was a subset of communion with God.

How can a believer be motivated for holiness amid the disappointments and sufferings of life in a fallen world?

The first point Owen would have Christians understand is that we, like the world, are wasting away. We can’t escape physical pain in a fallen world. As Owen asserts, generally speaking, “afflictions and troubles increase with age”. It can be all too easy in our medically advanced society to assume that pain is not a fact of life. However, as a colleague of mine with chronic back pain once said aptly: “It’s all downhill to the resurrection!”

The second point Owen would want Christians to grasp is that believers are subject to “breaches”, “decays”, and “backslidings” in their spiritual life. He found this taught throughout the entirety of Scripture from the Psalms to the churches of Revelation 2 and 3. Being sub­ject to spiritual decay is part and parcel of being Christian. It is not as if believers are free from evil desires which wage war against our souls (1 Pet. 2:11). As Christians we can neither expect spiritual perfection nor incessant religious highs.

But the third point Owen would desire Christians appreciate is God’s provi­sion of “fresh springs of spiritual life”. The mature believer comes to desire these “more than all the world, and all that it is in it”. Despite the inevitable bodily and potential spiritual decay, God can and does water and nourish true believers spiritually. What are these fresh springs in particular? Nothing less than spiritual-mind­edness and holiness for God’s glory and our own peace and joy.

And here is the crux of Owen’s argument: It is these “fresh springs of spiritual life” that will sustain believers through the worst afflictions of a fallen world. Without God’s spiritual watering “we shall faint in our distresses”. The passage of Scripture that lies behind Owen’s teaching on this is, of course, 2 Cor 4:16­-17:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary trou­bles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So, if “fresh springs of spiritual life” sustain us through the decays of life in a fallen world how do we find this refresh­ment from God? If we are subject to spir­itual decay how do we recover? Owen’s answer shows how mistaken many inter­pretations of Puritanism are. He believes it is not firstly embarking on a regime of works. There is a place for works in the Christian life, but it is not the starting place for recovery. It is the fruit rather than the root of spiritual rejuvenation. Indeed, Owen believes that too often our knee-jerk reaction to conviction of sin is a flurry of works to appease God for our wrongs. However, this is not “evangeli­cal”; it is to recover in our “own strength”.

Refreshment, in Owen’s teaching, comes from Jesus Christ by faith in Jesus Christ. Christ is the vine and we are the branches, hence “without Him we can do nothing” (John 15:3-5); all our spiritual sustenance comes from Christ; He is our life and we live in Him (Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:1-4).

But the only way whereby we may receive fresh supplies of grace is by faith: “He dwells in our hearts by faith, and he acts in us by faith, and we live by faith in or on the Son of God.” For Owen, there is no other means whereby we can receive spiritual nutrition. But this faith derives its power from its object: the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Owen magnificently puts it this way:

This, therefore, is the issue of the whole: a steady view of the glory of Christ, in His person, grace, and office, through faith — or a constant, lively exercise of faith on Him, according as He is revealed unto us in the Scripture — is the only effectual way to obtain a revival from under our spiritual decays, and such supplies of grace as shall make us flourishing and fruitful even in old age.

Here is the foundation of Owen’s doc­trine of holiness. Restoration and refresh­ment comes through meditation on Christ’s glory in His incarnation, life, atonement, resurrection, ascension, and session. Indeed one of the last books Owen wrote as a frail aged man was Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ precisely to help fellow believers turn their eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face. And in so doing they would find consolation amidst the sor­rows and setbacks of life.

A classic but mistaken interpretation of Puritan theology is still popular. It sees the decrees of God as the very centre and soul of Christian doctrine. However, if there is a focus in Owen’s theology it is the Lord Jesus Christ: “(Christ) is the centre and circumference of all the lines of truth — that is, which is divine, spiritual, and supernatural.”

I do say, indeed, now, whatever I have said before, that it is impossible to under­stand any sacred truth savingly and clearly, without knowledge of the person of Christ.

For Owen, Christ unlocks all saving truth. Thus, the wilting Christian is to gaze upon the glory of Christ as presented in Scripture and there he will find who God truly is: a Father who loves His children to death. And it is through this that God’s Spirit will refresh believers in physical suffering and repair spiritual backslid­ing. This is because we were made to enjoy God through Christ. And thus, ultimate satisfaction and delight is found in him (Mt. 11:28; John 7:37).

Owen is no introspective legalist when it comes to holiness. His is a sophisticated understanding that doesn’t ignore the reality of afflictions. Neither is Owen an anchorless mystic. His theology is bible-based and Christ-centred without neglecting the affections. The heart of holiness in a believer’s life is found in Christ and His glory. Holiness comes from Christ by Christ for God’s glory. And if this is true, then Owen can rightly conclude:

Let us live in the constant con­templation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience.